DAILY DELIGHT IN
THE WORD OF GOD

When you truly delight (take great pleasure in or experience a high degree of satisfaction) in the Word, you will have a desire (a craving, a longing , a "hunger or thirst") to spend time in it and to meditate on it. Beloved, we do not naturally delight in the Holy Word for we are by nature unholy. Therefore when any man or woman begins to delight in the Word, they can know for certain that they are experiencing God's amazing grace (cp Php 2:13-note wherein we see that the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to delight and the dynamic to understand God's Holy Word! cp 1Cor 2:11-13. In expectant humility, always ask Him to illuminate His supernatural Word which is otherwise unintelligible to the natural mind!)

May the Father daily grant us His grace sufficient to prompt us to desire to delight in Him and to devour His Word for the sake of His Name, through Christ Jesus, the Living Word of God. Amen. (Compare [meditate upon] the prayer for literal food "Give us this day our daily bread" Mt 6:11-note with the words of Jesus in Mt 4:4 quoting Dt 8:3 - read the context Dt 8:1-3 - Notice what God's powerful purpose was in these passages! Does He have you in a humbling circumstance today? Don't try to wiggle out! Instead yield yourself like a lump of clay and allow the Potter to mold you into the image of His Son. This calls for daily death to self and daily taking up of the Cross [which also bespeaks of death!] If your Christian life is dry, dull, distant… then may I suggest that you stop dutifully "trying" and start daily "dying" so that His Spirit might live through you more fully and practically. Meditate on Deut 8:1-3.)

In the following verses from Psalm 119, observe the association between delight and meditation.

23 Even though princes sit and talk against me, Thy servant meditates on Thy statutes. (note)

24 Thy testimonies also are my delight; They are my counselors. (note)

47 And I shall delight in Thy commandments, which I love (which is why he delights!). (note)

48 And I shall lift up my hands to Thy commandments, which I love; and I will meditate on Thy statutes. (note) (Apply: Do I love His Word like the psalmist?)

77 May Thy compassion come to me that I may live, for Thy law is my delight. (note)

78 May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie; but I shall meditate on Thy precepts. (note)

PRAYER

If God's Word is not the desire and delight of your heart, plead with Him until He grants your request (1Th 5:17-note) so that your soul might cultivate an appetite for the pure milk of His Word (1Pe 2:2-note). If you pray this with clean hands and a pure heart (Ps 24:4-note), you can be assured God will answer it affirmatively for it is in accordance with His good and perfect will (1Jn 5:14, 15, cp Mt 7:7-note). Will you dare to pray this prayer? Will you dare not pray this prayer!

Meditation is not giving free rein to your imagination,
nor is it reading your Bible for beautiful thoughts.
Meditation is a discipline.
-J. I. Packer

Meditation is the bellows of the affections.
-Thomas Watson
(Bellows = An instrument, utensil or machine for blowing fire.
Bellows are used to make the refiner’s fires burn fiercely - cp Jer 6:29)

What made Charles Haddon Spurgeon such a powerful, Spirit anointed preacher of the Word? There are probably many answers to this question, but the following quote from Spurgeon suggests one of his "secrets"…

“I quarry out the Truth when I read, but I smelt the ore and get the pure gold out of it when I meditate!… For lack of meditation the Truth of God runs by us and we miss and lose it. Our treacherous memory is like a sieve—and what we hear and what we read runs through it and leaves but little behind—and that little is often unprofitable to us by reason of our lack of diligence to get thoroughly at it. I often find it very profitable to get a text as a sweet morsel under my tongue in the morning and to keep the flavor of it, if I can, in my mouth all day!”—How to Read the Bible - #3318

“The inward meditation [of God’s Word] is the thing that makes the soul rich towards God. This is the godly man’s occupation. Put the spice into the mortar by reading, beat it with the pestle of meditation—so shall the sweet perfume be exhaled.”—The Truly Blessed Man - #3270

Read the Bible carefully,
and then meditate and meditate and meditate.
- C H Spurgeon

So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth,
if we would get the wine of consolation there from.
- C H Spurgeon

A PRIMER ON MEDITATION

M. A. Rosanoff, long associated with Thomas Edison, had worked futilely for over a year to soften the wax of phonograph cylinders by altering their chemical constitution. The results were negative. Rosanoff relates how he mused night after night trying to "mentally cough up" every theoretical and practical solution.

"Then it came like a flash of lightning. I could not shut waxes out of my mind, even in my sleep. Suddenly, through headache and daze. I saw the solution."

"The first thing the next morning, I was at my desk and half an hour later I had a record in the softened wax cylinder… this was the solution! I learned to think waxes… waxes… waxes, and the solution came without effort although months of thought had gone into the mental mill."

Rosanoff learned to think waxes. It was like unrolling a ball of string out of the unknown and night after night pulling it toward his mind, not knowing what might be attached to the other end of every thought or concept. Meditation is the art of hauling in that ball of mental thread.

This is a generation of hustle and bustle. "Time out" for anything except sleep and medical checkups is considered idling your motor when you ought to be in high gear. Reflection and deep thought in a quiet place is a thing of the past. This idea of taking time to be holy is more often a song we sing than an accomplishment. It takes time to be holy. It takes lots of time to be truly effective for God. Each of us needs time to think waxes -- this was Rosanoff's secret. He daily gave his problem a second thought. It is a mistaken idea that meditation is only for those who have time for it -- daydreamers, scientists, novelists, ascetics and cloistered saints of religion. Giving life a second thought is the need of every man.

"Meditation is the skeleton key that unlocks the greatest storeroom in the house of God's provisions for the Christian."

The men who carry this key upon the chain of their daily life come into a knowledge and relationship that the "activist" and the restless ones have never known. With the solitude of the meditation room, there is produced a quality of life that must be standard equipment for all the Master's men.

"Now come along to some quiet place by yourself and rest for a little while" (Mk 6:31 Phillips Translation).

WHAT IS MEDITATION?

A. T. Pierson - "Meditation is simply thought prolonged and directed to a single object. Your mystic chambers where thoughts abide are the secret workshop of an unseen Sculptor chiseling living forms for a deathless future. Personality and influence are modeled here. Hence, the biblical injunction: 'Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life'"

J. I. Packer says that meditation is the practice of turning each truth we learn about God into matter for reflection before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.

“Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God… It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.” (Packer, J I: Knowing God)

Saturation with the Scriptures
is the
Secret to Satisfaction of our Souls

Remember that it is not hasty reading—but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths, which makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee which gathers honey (cp Ps 19:10-note; Ps 119:103-note)—but her abiding for a time on the flower which draws out the sweet. It is not he who reads most, but he who meditates most—who will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian."

Meditation is CHEWING. Meditation is aptly depicted by the cow's process of mastication (chewing). God has so constructed bovines to bring up previously digested food for additional grinding to enable optimal assimilation of the "cud." Meditation is pondering and reviewing various thoughts (especially the thoughts/words of God) by mulling them over in one's mind and heart (our "control center" so to speak - see Pr 4:23-note). Meditation is the processing of God's food for our soul (real "soul food!) One might call it "divine thought digestion." "Chewing" upon a divine thought, deliberately and diligently, a process which (enabled by the Spirit our "Sanctifier") provides the vital link between theory and action, between God's Word on paper and God's Word in our life. What mastication is to the physical life of the cow, meditation is to the spiritual life of those created in the image of God. C H Spurgeon asks a good question…

“Have you a spiritual taste, dear Hearer? It is one thing to hear the Word. It is another thing to taste it. Hearing the Word is often blessed, but tasting it is a more inward and spiritual thing—it is the enjoyment of the Truth in the innermost parts of our being! Oh, that we were all as fond of the Word as were the old mystics who chewed the cud of meditation till they were fattened upon the Word of the Lord and their souls grew strong in the Divine Love! I am sure of this—the more you know of God’s Word, the more you will love it!”—The True Sayings of God - #3144

Meditation is ANALYZING. Literally analyzing describes the art of taking an intentional, lengthy look at a given object as the jeweler does when he puts his eyepiece on to examine the character and qualities of a flawless diamond. Indeed, "The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times." (Ps 12:6-note) Meditation on the living and active (energetic) Word (Heb 4:12-note) is like gazing at a prism, which breaks a single beam of sunlight into many component colors. As we take time to steadily focus on the "diamond" of God's Word, the Spirit illumines the Son's light in His many and variegated "colors and hues."

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law (Psalm 119:18). (Spurgeon's comment)

Meditation is ACTION. Someone has described it: "Making words into thoughts and thoughts into actions." It is mental planning ahead with definite action in mind for accomplishing a job. Andrew Murray describes it: "Holding the Word of God in your heart until it has affected every phase of your life… this is meditation."

Now tie these three thoughts together: chewing, analyzing and action. Reflect on each of them now before reading any further. Give God time for divine polishing in His secret place in order to more effectually reproduce His glory and beauty in public.

MEDITATION:
NOT WITHOUT DIFFICULTIES

"Muse" was the name given to an ancient Greek god who spent much time in solitude and thinking. The statue of "The Thinker" is the artistic concept of deep concentration and absorption. Add an "a" to the beginning of "muse" and you have: "amuse" -- sports, games, television and a score of other tools used by the enemy to keep God's men from concentrating on man's God.

Dawson Trotman illustrated Biblical meditation by comparing the way cows get the cud on which they chew…

A cow eats grass as it grazes early in the morning. When the sun gets hot, it will lie in the shade of a tree, and through the use of a unique elevator system it will bring up the grass from one stomach and thoroughly masticate it. When this is finished, it will put it into another stomach, having gotten from it everything possible in the way of nutrients.

Beware of getting alone with your own thoughts. Get alone with God's thoughts. There is danger in rummaging through waste and barren desert-thoughts that can be labeled -- daydreaming or worse. Don't meditate upon yourself but dwell upon Him -- seek God in your inner thought life. There is always danger in meditating upon problems. Develop the habit of reflection upon the Word of God and therein find the answers to your problems.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips: When I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches" (Psalm 63:5-6).

Lying awake, the good man betook himself to meditation, and then began to sing. He had a feast in the night, and a song in the night. He turned his bedchamber into an oratory, he consecrated his pillow, his praise anticipated the place of which it is written, "There is no night there." Perhaps the wilderness helped to keep him awake, and if so, all the ages are debtors to it for this delightful hymn. If day's cares tempt us to forget God, it is well that night's quiet should lead us to remember him. We see best in the dark if we there see God best.

And meditate on thee in the night watches. Keeping up sacred worship in my heart as the priests and Levites celebrated it in the sanctuary. Perhaps David had formerly united with those "who by night stand in the house of the Lord," and now as he could not be with them in person, he remembers the hours as they pass, and unites with the choristers in spirit, blessing Jehovah as they did. It may be, moreover, that the king heard the voices of the sentries as they relieved guard, and each time he returned with renewed solemnity to his meditations upon his God. Night is congenial, in its silence and darkness, to a soul which would forget the world, and rise into a higher sphere. Absorption in the most hallowed of all themes makes watches, which else would be weary, glide away all too rapidly; it causes the lonely and hard couch to yield the most delightful repose -- repose more restful than even sleep itself. We read of beds of ivory, but beds of piety are better far. Some revel in the night, but they are not a tithe so happy as those who meditate in God.

Let's get started. Since we want to make this a built-in habit of daily living, start with a moment of prayer. Ask God's help in concentration, alertness of mind and that inward sense of His abiding Presence. As a means of getting under way, here are five suggestions that will make the following Bible verse extremely practical:

One of the most helpful approaches in meditation is to emphasize different words within the verse. As you throw them out vocally, the Holy Spirit will echo them back to your heart through your ears and mind. Read the first phrase aloud several times with striking emphasis upon the word in caps:

HITHERTO have ye asked nothing in My Name.

Hitherto have YE asked nothing in My Name.

Hitherto have ye asked NOTHING in My Name.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in MY NAME.

(2). Paraphrase:

Put this verse from the King James Version into your own words. Say it over and over, silently and aloud, until you can communicate it back to yourself in language that has meaning. Reflect slowly. Don't be in a hurry to reword it -- rearrange the words and use your dictionary to look up words you don't understand. Perhaps you will end up with something like this:

"Up to this moment you have not been asking anything in God's authority; go ahead and ask, see if God doesn't love to answer. This is because He wants you to be full of cheerfulness."

(3). Ask Questions:

Now that you have taken it apart and have paraphrased it so it is your very own, start asking questions. Use the ones the newspaper reporter starts with: who? what? where? when? why? and how? (See discussion of this interrogative mindset under Inductive Study) Here's how it works on John 16:24.

Who is Jesus talking to?

What is He saying? What does He say I should do?

Where should I pray? Where have I failed in my praying?

When should I ask? When is my joy full and complete?

Why does God say I should pray?

How should I go about asking?

Every question is not equally productive, but by asking such questions, your mind will be focused on the Word of God -- this is the beginning of meditation. When you start asking questions, you start to dissect. Not questions that just bring up facts and doctrine but also heart-feeding application. Questions and answers to the above put the Scriptures into the bloodstream of your soul.

(4). Application:

Apply Jn 16:24 immediately. 2Ti 3:16, 17 (see notes) says that all Scripture is profitable in a four-fold function: it is useful in teaching the faith, for correcting error, for resetting the direction of man's life and for training him in good living. Tackle John 16:24 once again from these four angles: (Click here for Application in Inductive Bible Study)

a. Is there some truth I should know from this verse?

b. Is there something I should stop doing in light of this verse?

c. Is there a practice in my life I should change?

d. Is there a habit I ought to begin?

(5). Persistence:

A "verse a day" can be selected during your quiet time in the morning. To begin with, it can be done within ten minutes. Try analyzing, dissecting and chewing over such a verse during odd moments of your day -- walking to work, riding the train or bus, waiting for meals or "killing time" for that appointment. Apply it that very day. Perhaps you will have the opportunity to share it with someone else. [A workable plan for busy people desiring a daily morning time with God has been written in a little brochure - for this booklet click Seven Minutes With God. As a practical exercise click and meditate on all 23 uses of "meditate" in OT. Make a list of what you learn about meditating on meditation! Then "Selah" which indicates a pause, which also implies meditation. See the 74 uses of "Selah" in the Psalms.)

The crown fruit of meditation is the changed life. Without the transformed life, meditation is of little eternal value. This was the problem Jesus had with the Pharisees of His day. They knew the facts and were experts in doctrine. They were conscientious, sincere and dedicated. But the Lord called them sons of Satan -- "Ye are of your father the devil." Why this stinging indictment? Because for all their study of the Old Testament, there was no change in their lives. As D L Moody said "Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather," alluding to the importance of applying the truth we learn to our lives. These religious hypocrites continued to oppress the poor, defraud the widows and pursue doubtful business practices! In a word no repentance which signified they had no regeneration.

Beware of meditation that ends in pious words without pious practices (cf Jas 1:22-note). True meditation fuels God honoring moral actions. A changed attitude toward God and fellow man should be the result, including things like a changed work habit, a changed relationship to one's spouse or family, in short -- a changed life! Anything less means your "meditation" is little more than "pious platitudes" as they say.

"O how I love Thy law: it is my meditation all the day" (Ps 119:97-note)

Comment: This verse is very practical and very convicting for we all understand that if you truly love someone, you will want to spend time with them! And this thought in turn reminds us of Colossian 3:16-note where Paul instructs the saints at Colossae to let the Word of Christ richly dwell within them. The key word is dwell (enoikeo) which means to take up residence or make one's home, giving us a great word picture of believers being at home with the Word of Christ, living in it! Does that describe you beloved disciple of Christ?

Spurgeon's Comment regarding the phrase it is my meditation all the day "This was both the effect of his love and the cause of it. He meditated in God's word because he loved it, and then loved it the more because he meditated in it. He could not have enough of it, so ardently did he love it: all the day was not too long for his converse with it. His main prayer, his noonday thought, his evensong were all out of Holy Writ; yea, in his worldly business he still kept his mind saturated with the law of the Lord. It is said of some men that the more you know them the less you admire them; but the reverse is true of God's word. Familiarity with the word of God breeds affection, and affection seeks yet greater familiarity. When "thy law," and "my meditation" are together all the day, the day grows holy, devout, and happy, and the heart lives with God."

Bring the fruit of your meditation and offer it to the Lord for His blessing. Ask the Holy Spirit to apply the Word to your heart and enable you to live today in conformity to it.

Let the words of my mouth,
And the meditation of my heart,
Be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
My strength, and my Redeemer
Psalm 19:14-note

Spurgeon commenting on Psalm 19:14 said that this verse is "A sweet prayer, and so spiritual that it is almost as commonly used in Christian worship as the apostolic benediction. Words of the mouth are mockery if the heart does not meditate; the shell is nothing without the kernel; but both together are useless unless accepted; and even if accepted by man, it is all vanity if not acceptable in the sight of God. We must in prayer view Jehovah as our strength enabling, and our Redeemer saving, or we shall not pray aright, and it is well to feel our personal interest so as to use the word my, or our prayers will be hindered. Our near Kinsman's name, our Goel or Redeemer, makes a blessed ending to the Psalm; it began with the heavens, but it ends with him whose glory fills heaven and earth. Blessed Kinsman, give us now to meditate acceptably upon thy most sweet love and tenderness."

THE ART OF MEDITATION
George Mylne

(From "Lessons for the Christian's Daily Walk" 1859)

"So I applied my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things." Ecclesiastes 7:25

We live in stirring days, when deeds are everything--when closet work is often neglected for active business, and little time is given to meditation. Yet, with more thought and prayer--wholesome activity would be greater in the end, and all our actions more successful. Time is not lost, which is spent in meditation--in searching wisdom's ways, and seeking out profound realities. There is one who often meditates--and yet accomplishes much. There is another who hastens--and yet does little.

None works so heartily, nor reaps so fully--
as he whose wits are sharpened by prayer and meditation.

Reading either Scripture or Christian books, apart from meditation, does little good. It is much the same as not digesting what you eat--this only starves the soul. How many read the Bible thus!

The art of meditation may be learned by dint of effort.

You say, "I am quite unused to meditate. How shall I begin?" Deal gently with yourself at first. Select your subject--some passage from the Word. Then fix the time you choose to give; say, five minutes at a time. Begin, and think aloud. This makes it easier, and saves the mind from distracted thoughts, the hardest task of all. The sound even of your own voice will help you; it is like speaking to a friend. And what is meditation, but communing with self (Ed: And with God through His Word)--that self may be a constant hearer.

But, more than all, make it a time of prayer--of communing with God. This helps the matter greatly. Take the words of Scripture--and ask Jesus what they mean. In doing this, the mind is exercised. A glow of thought attends the effort. You honor Jesus; and He will honor you, by pouring out a largeness of capacity--a quicker mind. The interchange of thought between you and Jesus goes on apace, and you are surprised to find how long the exercise has lasted.

Thus meditation grows, the more it is exercised. It …

feeds the soul,

expands the mind,

increases thought, and,

best of all, it brings you into fellowship with Jesus.

This is the very life and soul of meditation.

A Simple Study
On Meditation

Below you will find the 23 Scriptures in NASB that are translated with the word "meditate" or "meditation". Read through these passages and observe for answers to the questions "who, what, when, where, why or how?" (see discussion of 5W'S & H type questions -Related Resource: Inductive Bible Study) For the most accurate interpretation, you will want to click each respective link to check the corresponding context. Where are most of the references found? What is one to meditate upon in each of these uses? As you discipline yourself for godliness (1Ti 4:7, 8-note) and learn the art of interrogating the Biblical text (remember you are conversing with the Living God in and through His living Word - don't ever lose the sense of awe at this priceless, precious privilege!) for as you interact (actively, rather than how so many read the Scriptures - passively) you will be in a sense "meditating"… in this case you are meditating on what the Bible teaches about meditation! Make your observations into a list or a short paragraph with a Biblical description of meditation. Finally, pray some of these passages to our Father Who delights to see His children "chewing the cud" of His Word.

Gen 24:63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. (Who? When? Where?)

Joshua 1:8 (note) "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Who? Who speaking? To whom? Why? What is the context? When?, etc)

Job 15:4 "Indeed, you do away with reverence, and hinder meditation before God.

Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 4:4 Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to meditate in His temple. (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 49:3 My mouth will speak wisdom; and the meditation of my heart will be understanding. (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 63:6 When I remember Thee on my bed, I meditate on Thee in the night watches, (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 77:6 I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart; and my spirit ponders. (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 77:12 I will meditate on all Thy work, and muse on Thy deeds. (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 104:34 Let my meditation be pleasing to Him; As for me, I shall be glad in the LORD. (Spurgeon's note)

Comment: Think about what the psalmist is saying! In ancient days one could not reach over for their Bible on Iphone and read the Scripture on which one sought to meditate! No, the only way one could meditate on the Scriptures in the night watches is by having it memorized and available for ready recall.

Psalm 143:5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy doings; I muse on the work of Thy hands. (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 145:5 On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, And on Thy wonderful works, I will meditate. (Spurgeon's note)

Isaiah 33:18 Your heart will meditate on terror: "Where is he who counts? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?"

RESOURCES RELATED TO
BIBLICAL MEDITATION

BIBLICAL MEDITATION: Hampton Keathley, III in his excellent summary from Bible.org writes that "Meditation means “the act of focusing one’s thoughts: to ponder, think on, muse.” Meditation consists of reflective thinking or contemplation, usually on a specific subject to discern its meaning or significance or a plan of action. " (click for entire article - highly recommended)

BORN TO REPRODUCE: A short biography on the abundant life of Dawson Trotman founder of The Navigators. If you are not familiar with how God supernaturally used this man, you NEED TO READ his encouraging, motivating biography (click), because every saint is exhorted to "remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith" (Heb 13:8-note) But we cannot imitate one whom we do not know. But perhaps you would like to know who is Dawson Trotman - click for a good summary of his life and legacy.

The Navigators is an international, interdenominational Christian organization. Jesus Christ gave His followers a Great Commission in Matthew 28.19. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… " The primary aim of the Navigators is to help fulfill Christ's Great Commission by making disciples and developing disciple makers in every nation. Edited into digital media from a print media booklet not naming author, bearing no date, claiming no copyright, published by The Navigators. This electronic text edition, although slightly different on format, is also issued freely into the public domain.

MEDITATE ON THE WORD DAY & NIGHT: PSALM1 (Ps 1) by John Piper who explains that meditation on the Word is difficult if one does not first memorize it and that "the depth and solidity and certainty of your walk with God and your communion with God will rise and fall with whether God's own written Word is the warp and woof of the fabric of your fellowship." (entire sermon)

John Piper on meditation - Here I speak not of sermon preparation but of what I call "going out to pasture"—resting and ruminating on the word of God. It is savoring for the sake of life, not seeking for tomorrow's text. (Avoiding Sexual Sin - Desiring God)

Our lives are unbelievably distracted. We are experts at multi-tasking, surfing, and skimming, but it is harder than ever to meditate. Therefore, it is imperative to intentionally cultivate meditation on God’s Word. But how? If possible, find a consistent time, place, and plan. Then read slowly and carefully. Reread and reread. Read out loud (which is implied in the Hebrew word for meditation in Psalm 1:2). Read prayerfully. Read with a pen in hand. Memorize texts that you read. Read with other people and talk about what you see. Study a book of the Bible with a good commentary. Pray about a plan for Bible meditation this year, and talk about your plan with a Christian friend.

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

BRIAN HEDGES ON MEDITATION - What do you think about in the still of the night? Ps 63:6, 7 give the setting for David’s satisfaction in Ps 63:3, 4, 5: David’s thoughts were consumed with God, even in the still of the night, and what we think often about is closest to our hearts. A mind full of God is a good indicator of a “fit” spirituality. Like the blessed man of Psalm 1 (Ps 1:1, 2, 3 - see notes Ps 1:1; 1:2; 1:3), our delight should be the law of the Lord, and on His law we should meditate day and night. Meditation could be compared to both a thermostat and a thermometer. While a thermostat controls the temperature in a room, a thermometer measures the temperature. Meditation on Scripture does both—it measures our spiritual temperature, and it controls and changes it. To discover how strong you are spiritually, take an inventory of your thought life. Are your thoughts centered on God, His glories, His grace, His Son, and His Word? If so, you will be transformed. (From Brian Hedges: A Picture of Spiritual Health - Life Action Revival Ministries) (See also Brian Hedges' article - Our Greatest Treasure)

We all know that we should be growing in Christ, but sometimes we forget that God holds us responsible to use the tools He has provided for our growth. Christians of another generation described these tools as “means of grace.” They include reading and meditating on Scripture, praying, fasting, attending corporate worship, and celebrating the Lord’s Table. (Brian Hedges - Habits of Holiness)

Someone once said that 1 in 100 Christians read Scripture regularly; 1 in 1000 memorize Scripture; but only 1 in 10,000 meditate! Leonard Ravenhill was once asked for advice by an aspiring young preacher. His answer? “Meditate. Meditate. Meditate.” (Brian Hedges - Staying in the Battle)

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. 1Ti 4:15

The chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has often stressed the importance of family Bible reading. Some years ago in a letter to the American Bible Society he said, "Inspiration has been the keynote of America's phenomenal growth … and the backbone of its greatness… This inspiration has been from faith in God … and in the belief that the Holy Bible is His inspired Word. Reading the Scriptures within the family circle is more important today than ever before. As a small boy I sat at my mother's knee while she read the Word to me and explained its meanings with stories as we went along. It served to make the bond of faith between us much stronger. Then there were those wonderful nights when my father would gather all the chil­dren around him and read aloud verses from the Bible. This led to family discussions which were interesting, lively, and informa­tive. Those wonderful sessions left me with an imprint of the power of faith and … prayer which has sustained me in trying moments throughout my life."

Regrettably, family altars are fast disappearing from the American scene. People are too busy. The family is seldom together long enough to enjoy such sweet moments of fellowship — and the world is much the poorer for it! The Word of God constantly admonishes us to meditate upon its contents, for only as we ab­sorb its teachings, believe its promises, and hide its precepts in our hearts can we prosper spiritually and live the "more abundant life."

Take a cue from the letter of J. Edgar Hoover; and if you have not yet established a definite time for Bible study in your home, start now — even if you can devote only five minutes a day to this necessary task. Man cannot live by bread alone. He must find sustenance for his spirit by appropriating the truths of God through the avenue of prayer and careful meditation.

How precious is the Book divine,
By inspiration given!
Bright as a lamp its precepts shine,
To guide our souls to Heaven. — J. Fawcett

I will meditate on Your precepts,
and contemplate Your ways. . --Psalm 119:15

I love the sight of cows lying in the field, chewing their cud. But what is cud? And why do they spend so much time chewing it?

Cows first fill their stomachs with grass and other food. Then they settle down for a good, long chew. They bring the food back up from their stomachs and rework what they've already eaten, assimilating its goodness and transforming it into rich milk. Time-consuming? Yes. A waste of time? Not if they want to give good milk.

The phrase "chewing the cud" is used to describe the process of meditation. The writer of Psalm 119 obviously did a lot of mental chewing as he read God's Word. No fast food for him! If we follow his example of careful and prayerful Scripture reading, we will:

There When You Need It
I have hidden Your Word in my heart
that I might not sin against You. (Psalm 119:11-note).

Dawson Trotman illustrated Biblical meditation by comparing the way cows retrieve the cud on which they chew - A cow eats grass as it grazes early in the morning. When the sun gets hot (Ed: When we are tempted, when we experience unexpected trials, etc), it will lie in the shade of a tree, and through the use of a unique elevator system it will bring up the grass from one stomach (Ed: The verses we have memorized. The passages we read that morning. The Scriptures in the sermon we heard on Sunday, etc.) and thoroughly masticate it (Ed: We "chew the cud" of the Scriptures the Spirit brings to our mind). When this is finished, it will put it into another stomach, having gotten from it everything possible in the way of nutrients.

One thing about students: They know how to memorize! Let's face it-you have to if you want to survive. Whether it's the symbols of all the elements in chemistry, the names of all the bones in the human body, or the chronological sequence of Shakespeare's 23 plays, you can learn huge amounts of information to pass your exams.

It's a good thing God gave us such large-capacity brains. We not only store the info we study, but we also keep it all in order and can recall it when we need it. A magazine called THINK reports that our brains can store enough information to fill several million books! Think about that the next time you feel like complaining when your science instructor says to memorize the distance of each of the nine planets from the sun.

Classroom work, though, may not be the best use of memory. As good as that is, a better use is to "hide" God's Word in your heart. Then the Holy Spirit can help you recall it when you need it.

Remember Chet Bitterman, the Wycliffe missionary? He was kidnapped by Colombian terrorists and held captive 7 weeks before being killed. Before his capture, Chet had memorized 1 Peter, a book written to first-century believers who were suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ. During Bitterman's captivity, he wrote his wife a letter in which he quoted 1Peter 3:15, 16-notes. He said he was using those verses to strengthen and guide him in his response to his captors. Months earlier, when he was memorizing 1 Peter, he had no way of knowing how he would be needing it.

London music student Richard Steel prized the old violin that had once been his grandfather's. One day Richard tried to help a bus driver who couldn't get close to the curb because of a barrier. Putting aside his old violin, he removed the obstacle. But then the driver, unable to see the books and the violin, drove over them.

The crushed books could be replaced. And the old violin, though valued for sentimental reasons, could be replaced too--or could it?

As Richard examined his splintered instrument, inside he found the signature of Stradivarius, the greatest of all violin makers. The old violin was a priceless and irreplaceable masterpiece. The Sotheby auction firm estimated that it had been worth more than $700,000.

Many families pass treasured Bibles from one generation to the next as spiritual heirlooms. But these treasures are often treated as mere antiques while their pages go unread and their promises remain unclaimed. The message of salvation goes unheeded. Its true value is never realized.

Meditation on God's Word doesn't have to end when your devotional time is over. You can continue the blessing by taking Scripture with you throughout the day.

Some people memorize a passage or write it on a card so they can have it available to read when they get a few moments. An engineer uses his coffee breaks to continue his reflection on God's Word. Homemakers attach verses to the refrigerator or bathroom mirror. Truckers put portions of the Bible on their dashboard.

Leslie B. Flynn tells of a brilliant college student who volunteered to work at a church camp and ended up as the designated potato peeler. A friend who admired her intelligence said,"It's too bad you had to end up peeling potatoes."

She replied,"I don't have to think about potatoes while I'm peeling them. So I think about my Bible verse for the day."

As meditation on this word, 'eternity', has been so beneficial to my own soul, I would advise others to make the same experiment. - Thomas Jones

It is to our shame that we have imbibed too much of this world’s materialism and unbelief. What do we need more than to meditate on the precious covenant promises of Holy Scripture until our souls have drunk deeply into the spirit of a biblical supernaturalism? What could be more profitable than to eat and drink of heaven’s biblical nourishment till our souls become vibrant with the age-old prayer for revival, and till we find grace to plead our suit acceptably at the throne of grace? -- Maurice Roberts in The Prayer for Revival (Psalm 89)

We ought to apply our minds to meditation upon a future life, so that this world may become cheap to us. - John Calvin (I would add Spurgeon said "A little faith gets our souls into heaven. A great gets heaven [and our great future] into our souls!")

Meditate on our making, that we may fall in love with our Maker. - David Dickson (E.g., Meditate on Ps 8:1-9 THEN read Spurgeon's meditation) (Cp Job 7:17-18, Ps 144:4)

Meditation is the life of most other duties. Richard Baxter

A man may think on God every day and meditate on God no day. William Bridge

Continual meditation on the Word is not ineffectual;… God, by one and another promise, establishes our faith. John Calvin

Nothing leads to self-repudiation so much as spiritual meditation on the corruption and wickedness of your heart. Walter J. Chantry

Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid. (cp Ep 1:18, 19-note) G. K. Chesterton

Meditate on our making, that we may fall in love with our Maker. David Dickson

There is no place like the feet of Jesus for resolving the problems that perplex our hearts. G. B. Duncan (cp Luke 10:38, 39, 40, 41, 42).

Meditation is the soul's chewing. William Grimshaw

Speed-reading may be a good thing, but it was never meant for the Bible. It takes calm, thoughtful, prayerful meditation on the Word to extract its deepest nourishment. Vance Havner

When we are too busy to sharpen the axe, we are too busy. Vance Havner

Meditation is the best help to memory. Matthew Henry

It is easier to go six miles to hear a sermon, than to spend one quarter of an hour in meditating on it when I come home. Philip Henry

Meditation keeps out Satan. It increases knowledge, it inflames love, it works patience, it promotes prayer, it evidences sincerity. Philip Henry

Meditation is a serious intention of the mind whereby we come to search out the truth and settle it effectively upon the heart. Thomas Hooker

There is such a thing as sacred idleness. George MacDonald

If it is the will of the Holy Ghost that we attend to the soul, certainly it is not his will that we neglect the mind. Charles Malik

Truths are concocted and ripened by meditation. Thomas Manton

True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace. Thomas Merton

Meditation is a scriptural duty… as binding as Bible reading and prayer. John J. Murray

If I have observed anything by experience it is this: a man may take the measure of his growth and decay in grace according to his thoughts and meditations upon the person of Christ, and the glory of Christ's kingdom, and of his love. John Owen

Meditate on the Word in the Word. John Owen

In meditation, the whole man is engaged in deep and prayerful thought on the true meaning and bearing of a particular biblical passage. J. I. Packer

Meditation is not giving free rein to your imagination, nor is it reading your Bible for beautiful thoughts. Meditation is a discipline. J. I. Packer

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. J. I. Packer

Sustained imaginative reflection is, if I am not mistaken, so rare today that few of us understand its power to motivate, and are not ourselves motivated by it. J. I. Packer

The minister who is to preach biblically can only do so as a result of much meditation. J. I. Packer

Contemplation is a perspective glass to see our Saviour in; but examination is a looking-glass to see ourselves in. William Secker

Meditation is the grand means of our growth in grace; without it, prayer itself is an empty service. Charles Simeon

Our design in meditation must be rather to cleanse our hearts than to clear our minds. George Swinnock (cp Pr 4:23-see notes)

Whatever engages my attention when I should be meditating on God and things external does injury to my soul. A. W. Tozer

Meditation is the bellows of the affections. Thomas Watson

Reading and conversation may furnish us with many ideas of men and things, yet it is our own meditation that must form our judgement. Isaac Watts

The heart is heated by meditation and cold truth is melted into passionate action. Donald S. Whitney

Many of the quotes above are from John Blanchard's The Complete Gathered Gold - it is without doubt the best compilation of quotations available and every Bible teacher and preacher should secure a personal copy of his excellent work,

MATTHEW HENRY
ON MEDITATION

Matthew Henry has many comments regarding meditation including the following…

"To meditate in God’s word is to discourse concerning the great things contained in it, with a close application of mind, a fixedness of thought, till we be suitably affected with those things and experience the savour and power of them in our hearts."…

"meditation is the best preparative for prayer, so prayer is the best issue of meditation"…

"Meditation and prayer are blessed means of strengthening faith and hope"…

"Meditation. God’s words must be laid up in our hearts, that our thoughts may be daily employed about them" …

"In retirement and in meditation the Christian character is formed and perfected" …

"To meditate in God’s word, is to discourse with ourselves concerning the great things contained in it, with close application of mind and fixedness of thought. We must have constant regard to the word of God, as the rule of our actions, and the spring of our comforts; and have it in our thoughts night and day. For this purpose no time is amiss."…

"Those who would have clear views of heaven, must get as near to heaven as they can, on the mount of meditation and faith" …

"we do not meditate on God’s precepts to good purpose, unless our good thoughts produce good works" …

Isaac "went out to take the advantage of a silent evening and a solitary place, for meditation and prayer; those divine exercises by which we converse with God and our own hearts" …

F B MEYER
ON MEDITATION

Devout meditation on the Word is more important to soul-health even than prayer. It is more needful for you to hear God's words than that God should hear yours, though the one will always lead to the other. - F B Meyer

“If a man abide not in Me,” said our Lord, “he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.” The same thought is here. Thrust down your rootlets to the oozy river bed, and there is no doubt about your continuing earnest, patient, God filled. The sun of temptation may strike you with sword-like beams, but you will have a source of supply which they cannot exhaust. The secret of an unwithering beauty is in the Word of God, delighted in and meditated upon day and night. And what is the Word of God, but the life of God translated into human speech?

Wean yourself from all beside, and learn to feed on God. Withdraw your rootlets from men and things, and let them travel to the river of God, which is full of water. Close other doors, and open those that lead out on to the terrace, whence you may behold the far-spread landscape of what He is, and says, and is willing to be to us all.

Note that word meditate. The root must lie in contact with the stream, and the soul most steep itself in the Word of God. We must give the truth time to enter and pervade our souls. We must have retreats, shut away from the rush of life, up and down the glades of which we may tread. These retreats are oftener found within the soul; than without. Just as the temple of old, there was Solomon’s porch, where Jesus walked, so in the temple within there are closes and cloisters, where we may commune with our heart, and be still.

The animals, in which these two characteristics met, were reckoned clean, and therefore fit for food. It is certain that the minute particularity of these words has some further reference than to the diet of Israel, important though that was, or to accentuate with every meal the necessity of their being a separate people. We, at least, may gather this lesson, that in our daily experience we must combine meditation and separation.

Meditation. — The cattle do not simply browse on the pastures, but they lie down to chew the cud. It is not enough to peruse our allotted Scripture portion; we must ruminate upon it, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and scripture with scripture. The Holy Ghost will take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, and He will bring all things to our remembrance.

Separation. — “Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.” “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” We have not meditated to good purpose unless we have felt its keen edge. Detachment from the world must follow on true attachment to Christ. Love to Naomi will draw Ruth from Moab across the Jordan.

The two must be combined. — The swine divideth the hoof, but cheweth not the cud, and was therefore unclean. A man may profess to love his Bible, but the supreme test is his daily separation from evil. On the other hand, our daily life ought to emanate, not from without, which is Pharisaism, but from within, where we chew the cud of holy meditation. (Our Daily Homily)

F B Meyer writes…

The habit of meditating on God's Word helps to induce the quiet heart and devout spirit which realizes the Lord's presence. The Bible is like the garden in which the Lord God walked in the cool of the day; read it much and prayerfully, and you will meet Him in its glades. ( March 27, Our Daily Walk)

The Blessed, or Happy, man is also described positively (Ps 1:2-notes). This delight comes as naturally as appetite for food, when the soul is in a healthy condition. Under the inspiration of that delight, we shall meditate on God's Word continually, storing it in the heart, and reciting it when travelling, or in darkness. (May 11, Our Daily Walk)

Out of faith comes faithfulness. Faith is your trust in another; faithfulness is your worthiness to be trusted. A faithful soul, one that can be absolutely relied upon, is of great price. Nothing so quickens our faith as to meditate on God's absolute trustworthiness. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." (November 12, Our Daily Walk)

The name of God is good, a wholesome theme for meditation, because it includes his nature. To meditate on it is soul-quieting and elevating. O troubled one, get away to some quiet spot and wait on God! (Our Daily Homily, Psalm 52:8)

Meditate on these three attributes. He is the God of your mercy, the Fountain from which pure mercy flows, and nothing but mercy; He is your High Tower, Whom you may put between yourself and Saul’s hate; He is your Strength, not that you receive strength from Him, but that you appropriate Him as your strength. Stay thus musing and resting, until in that very house, pent in and besieged, you shall break into song, singing of God’s strength, singing aloud of His mercy in the morning. (Our Daily Homily, Psalm 59:9)

The animals, in which these two characteristics met, were reckoned clean, and therefore fit for food. It is certain that the minute particularity of these words has some further reference than to the diet of Israel, important though that was, or to accentuate with every meal the necessity of their being a separate people. We, at least, may gather this lesson, that in our daily experience we must combine meditation and separation.

Meditation. — The cattle do not simply browse on the pastures, but they lie down to chew the cud. It is not enough to peruse our allotted Scripture portion; we must ruminate upon it, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and scripture with scripture. The Holy Ghost will take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, and He will bring all things to our remembrance.

Separation. — “Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.” “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” We have not meditated to good purpose unless we have felt its keen edge. Detachment from the world must follow on true attachment to Christ. Love to Naomi will draw Ruth from Moab across the Jordan.

The two must be combined. — The swine divideth the hoof, but cheweth not the cud, and was therefore unclean. A man may profess to love his Bible, but the supreme test is his daily separation from evil. On the other hand, our daily life ought to emanate, not from without, which is Pharisaism, but from within, where we chew the cud of holy meditation. (Our Daily Homily)

F B Meyer writes…

The habit of meditating on God's Word helps to induce the quiet heart and devout spirit which realizes the Lord's presence. The Bible is like the garden in which the Lord God walked in the cool of the day; read it much and prayerfully, and you will meet Him in its glades. ( March 27, Our Daily Walk)

The Blessed, or Happy, man is also described positively (Ps 1:2-notes). This delight comes as naturally as appetite for food, when the soul is in a healthy condition. Under the inspiration of that delight, we shall meditate on God's Word continually, storing it in the heart, and reciting it when travelling, or in darkness. (May 11, Our Daily Walk)

Out of faith comes faithfulness. Faith is your trust in another; faithfulness is your worthiness to be trusted. A faithful soul, one that can be absolutely relied upon, is of great price. Nothing so quickens our faith as to meditate on God's absolute trustworthiness. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." (November 12, Our Daily Walk)

The name of God is good, a wholesome theme for meditation, because it includes his nature. To meditate on it is soul-quieting and elevating. O troubled one, get away to some quiet spot and wait on God! (Our Daily Homily, Psalm 52:8)

Meditate on these three attributes. He is the God of your mercy, the Fountain from which pure mercy flows, and nothing but mercy; He is your High Tower, Whom you may put between yourself and Saul’s hate; He is your Strength, not that you receive strength from Him, but that you appropriate Him as your strength. Stay thus musing and resting, until in that very house, pent in and besieged, you shall break into song, singing of God’s strength, singing aloud of His mercy in the morning. (Our Daily Homily, Psalm 59:9)

Vance Havner commenting on "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide" (Ge 24:63) says

Isaac would definitely be out of style today. When have you seen anybody walking alone in quiet meditation? Such a stroller would be viewed with suspicion by his hustling, car‑borne contemporaries.

I have sought to emphasize certain themes‑revival, discipleship, the Lordship of Christ, the filling of the Spirit, the Lord's return. I have endeavored to call preachers to more meditation and reflection and solitude in this harassed and ear‑splitting day.

I have tried to call on Christians, and especially preachers, to fine time for quiet meditation and reflection; to be still and know God. If we spent more time like our Lord, by the sea or on the mountain in meditation and prayer, we would not be so easily addled by every little theological and sociological fad that comes by. I would say to preachers: "Get alone in the woods with your Bible, away from 'the madding crowd's ignoble strife/ telephones, and committee meetings… Read and pray until the fire bums in your bones."

ROBERT MORGAN
ON MEDITATION

Radical Surgery Necessary - We Have to Perform Open Heart Surgery On Ourselves Using the Scalpel of Scripture With a Firm Conviction that Meditation is the Best Medication For the Soul.

There’s no pillow like a promise. No blanket like the Bible. No mattress like meditation.

Meditation and the "Fogs" of Life - In 1952 there was a young swimmer named Florence Chadwick who determined to swim all the way from Catalina Island to the shore of mainland California. The waters of the Pacific were cold and choppy, but she sat out. She was a world-class champion swimmer who had already swam across the English Channel. The weather that day was so foggy that she could barely see the boats that accompanied her, and after swimming for fifteen hours in the cold and dark waters, she lost heart. Her mother, who was in one of the boats, told her that she was near the coast, and so she gave it a little more effort, but finally she just quit swimming and had to be pulled from the water. She discovered that the shore was less than a half-mile away, and she told reporters the next day, “All I could see was the fog.... I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”

In the fogs of life, we have to turn to the Bible and meditate on the future and see the shore. It gives us the strength and confidence to make it.

Meditation and Temptation - “Temptation always tests whether you love God more than the temptation. Let me give you a tip about temptation. When you’re tempted, don’t resist it. Because as you’re resisting it, guess what you’re doing? You’re just thinking about the temptation! You’re getting into a spiritual tug-of-war with Satan, and he always wins. You don’t resist it, you just drop the rope and walk a different direction and you think about something different. This is a verse that I’ve used literally hundreds and hundreds of times in my life [Philippians 4:8: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”] When I’m tempted it’s my favorite verse to use to turn my thoughts from what’s wrong to what’s right, so I’ve memorized it very well, because I have been tempted a lot. If you’ll take a verse like this and let it turn your mind from what’s wrong to what’s right, you’ll find the temptation starts to drop away.” (Quoted in his sermon 'CREATED TO BECOME LIKE CHRIST')

Meditation and Spiritual Growth - Scripture memory and meditation is the primary way to accelerate spiritual growth in your life. It speeds up the transformation process and leads to holier habits. After all, spiritual maturity is simply thinking more as God thinks; so as we implant His thoughts into our IQs, using Scripture memory, and as we utilize the process of meditation to convert those verses into regular thought patterns, we’re developing the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), yielding mature thoughts, pure habits, and holier lives. The Psalmist said, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (from "Seven Immediate Benefits of Scriptural Memory")

Illustration of the Power of Biblical Meditation - The biography of Geoffery Bull, the British missionary to Tibet who was captured and imprisoned by Chinese Communists, tells of how his captors took Bull’s possessions from him, threw him in a series of prisons, robbed him of his Bible, made him suffer terribly at their hands for three years. In addition to extreme temperatures and miserable physical conditions, coupled with bodily abuse and near starvation, Bull was subjected to such mental and psychological torture that he feared he would go insane. He had no Bible now, but he had studied the Bible all his life. So he began to systematically go over the Scriptures in his mind. He found it took him about six months to go all the way through the Bible mentally. He started at Genesis, and recalled each incident and story as best he could, first concentrating on the content and then musing on certain points, seeking light in prayer. He continued through the Old Testament, reconstructing the books and chapters as best he could, then into the New Testament and on to Revelation. Then he started over again. He later wrote, “The strength received through this meditation was, I believe, a vital factor in bringing me through, kept by the faith to the very end.” (Geoffrey T. Bull, When Iron Gates Yield (Chicago: Moody Press, n.d.), passim.)

So many people have IPod’s now, and I want to encourage you to find biblical lectures and sermons and download them. Instead of listening to some of the music or talk radio that usually blares from the car radio, listen to scripture and sermons and Bible lectures. (Check out the podcasts on our www.donelson.org website.) Feed your mind. (from his sermon "2 Corinthians 10:5 Every Thought Captive")

Meditation and God's Peace - How, then, do we enter more earnestly and successfully into God’s peace? Here are four suggestions.

First, make Jesus Christ the Lord of all your difficulties. Give your problems to Him. Let go and let God. Place them on the altar. Cast all your cares of Him for He cares for you. Do this consciously and deliberately.

Second, memorize the great verses in the Bible about God’s peace, some of which I’ve quoted in this message.

Third, meditate on those verses. This is the missing ingredient in Bible study. We have too much noise, too many technical contraptions around us all the time. We need quiet walks, quiet bicycle rides, quiet car trips, and quiet moments to think. When we study and memorize Scripture, it’s like swallowing a jewelry box whole. Meditation is the key that unlocks that internalized box and allows us to start bedecking our lives with the jewels.

Fourth, master your emotions. In the power of the Holy Spirit and using the tools of the Scripture you’ve memorized and meditation on, cast our discouragement and fear, anger and anxiety. Cast these things out like Jesus casting out demons. Make up your mind that you aren’t going to let these emotions and moods master your heart. Take yourself in hand and choose to live in God’s peace. Sometimes it’s a matter of sheer, sanctified, Spirit-empowered will-power. (from his sermon "WHAT A FELLOWSHIP! WHAT A JOY DIVINE!")

Meditation and Godly Wisdom - When I was in college in the 1970s, a man named Bill Gothard was conducting popular week-long seminars across the country, and a bunch of us students took our Spring break to go to Philadelphia and attend his conference. I still have the notes, and many of Gothard’s insights had a big impact on me. The thing I remember most clearly was his definition of wisdom. Wisdom, Gothard said, was seeing life from God’s point of view. And then he went on to emphasize the importance of Scripture memory and meditation. Gothard said that meditation is the practice of memorizing, visualizing, and personalizing Scripture. And as we faithfully memorize and meditate on Scripture, the Holy Spirit will gradually remold our minds until we see things and evaluate life increasingly from God’s point of view—and that’s the very essence of wisdom. (from his sermon "PORTABLE WISDOM")

Meditation and Renewal of our Minds - Romans 12 tells us that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and that happens as we meditate on God’s Word. So my own practice is this. I always try to be working on a passage to memorize. I may jot it down on a notecard and take it with me into the day. When I’m in the shower or when I’m in the car or when I’m taking a walk, I deliberately try to meditate on it. I ask myself: What does this verse mean? If I could visualize it, what would it look like? What does each word mean in turn? What does it mean to me? How would I explain it to another person? Many times when I’m stressed or weary or anxious, I’ll stretch out in the recliner and close my eyes and quote Scripture to myself. It’s the way I stay sane. It might be the twenty-third Psalm; it might be the Lord’s Prayer; it might be Psalm 1; it might be Philippians 4; it might be a collection of verses. But these are the most powerful words in the world and they are worthy of my meditation.

Meditation and Overcoming Worry - Paul’s final technique for overcoming worry is to meditate on what is excellent and praiseworthy. Phil 4:8-9 say: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Since worry and anxiety are conditions of the mind, one of the best remedies is to push them aside with healthier thoughts. Romans 12 says that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Isaiah said, "Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." Learn to memorize and meditate on Scripture. (From sermon "God's Alternative to Worry")

Meditation and Spiritual Success - (From his sermon on Joshua 1:8) Success Depends on Meditating on God’s Unchanging Word (Joshua 1:8-9) And that brings us to the third pattern for handling change. We can deal with changes in our lives so much better if we learn to meditate on God’s Unchanging Word. Verse 8 is our specific memory verse for today, and it’s one of my favorite verses in the Bible. So let’s take a moment to dissect it. The first phrase is a little awkward when it’s translated into English: Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth. Now, I believe this is referring to what our Jewish friends call the Torah—the first five books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. There were still 61 books to go—Joshua himself would write one of them that bears his name. But the foundation of the Bible was in his hands. The first phrase...means keep speaking it, keep reading it, keep repeating it, keep hearing it. But don’t stop there. As you read and hear it, think about it constantly. Meditate on it. The Hebrew word for “meditate” is from the same Hebrew verb that literally means to mutter, to read in a low voice. It’s the idea of muttering it to yourself.

I had two experiences during my college years that made an impression on me. The first was during my freshman year at KingCollege in Bristol, Tennessee. It was announced with great excitement that the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was going to visit our campus and lecture about meditation—specifically Transcendental Meditation. (I think I’m recalling this correctly, but it could have been one of the Maharishi’s associates). At any rate, I went to the lecture. The premise was, as I understood it at the time, that I as the practitioner should use some specific word or sound that had no meaning, a mantra. And I should find a comfortable place to sit and then repeat that mantra over and over again, until basically all my other thoughts had drained away and I was left with this sound which, in itself, had no thought content either. And then my near-empty mind could transcend itself and get in touch with the transcendent being, whoever or whatever that might be to me. That, as I understood it at the time, was Transcendental Meditation. Well, some of the students really liked these ideas and they followed the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but I confess that I wasn’t one of them. At that point in my life, I was empty-minded enough to begin with, and the last thing I needed was to empty my mind further than it already was.

The next year, 1971, I transferred to another college and I came in contact with another group call the Navigators. These were Christian young people, and I started studying the Bible in this group. Someone gave me a little booklet published by the Navigators and it was entitled “A Primer of Meditation.” But as I read this book, it took exactly the opposite approach to the Maharishi. Instead of meditating to empty our minds, it said, we should meditate to fill our minds—and to fill our minds with God’s Word. This little booklet said:

Meditation is the skeleton key that unlocks the greatest storeroom in the house of God’s provision for the Christian…. (It is) holding the Word of God in your heart until it has affected every phase of your life…. Beware of getting alone with your own thoughts. Get alone with God’s thoughts. There is danger in rummaging through waste and barren desert-thoughts that can be labeled daydreaming or worse. Don’t meditate upon yourself but dwell upon God…. Make this a built-in habit of daily living…(“A Primer on Meditation” is a 9-page booklet that published by the Navigators, no author is given and no date is cited. The quotes are from pages 2, 4, and 5.)

Well, this made a good deal more sense to me, and I began to discover a very powerful technique that really makes the Scriptures come alive. If I take a verse or a passage and I study it very carefully at my desk, then I come to understand something of its meaning. But if I memorize it or internalize it as best I can and then think about it while I’m driving down the road or taking a shower or going to sleep at night, I begin to develop fresh and exciting insights about that verse or passage. And I learned that it’s virtually impossible to teach or preach on a passage if you bypass the process of meditation. It is by meditation that the Word of God is broken down, digested, and assimilated in our minds and souls and spirits.

One day shortly afterward, while I was in college, I studied the first chapter of the prophet Jeremiah. I was impressed with this chapter and wanted to prepare a sermon, but I could not figure out how to develop the outline. I read the passage over and over and over. I can’t say that I had it memorized exactly, but I became very familiar with it. But I could not come up with a way to present it in a lesson or sermon. I thought about it day and night. One day I went for a walk in the woods, and suddenly while I was walking a perfect outline formed in my mind. I ran back to my dormitory room and wrote it down, and to this day if I’m in a real pinch I pull out this old outline and preach from it.

There is in the natural world, in the world of zoology, a perfect metaphor for meditation. I’ve shared this before, but I just can’t think of a better analogy, and it’s the picture of a sheep chewing her cud. We had a small flock of sheep that were our pets when the children were younger. One day I went down into the field and our daughter Hannah was sitting there beside the sheep just laughing and laughing. I asked what she was laughing at, and she was laughing at the sheep. The old sheep (it might have been Lucy) was laying there on the grass chewing and chewing, just as if she had a wad of bubblegum in her mouth. And then she would swallow it all. But in just a moment she would kind of burp and she’d start chewing again.

I explained to Hannah that Lucy had two sections in their stomach. She would graze in the field all morning and swallow all that grass more-or-less whole and it went down into one section of her stomach. And then she would find a shady spot during the afternoon, and she would regurgitate it one mouthful at a time and chew it up. And this time when she swallowed it, it would go into another part of her stomach and be digested and assimilated to all parts of her body.

When we read and study the Bible, we’re putting information into one part of our brain. We store the information there. But later we recall it, we chew on it, we roll it around in our brain, we meditate on it, and it becomes digested and assimilated to every part of our body and soul.
And that leads to obedience: Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. When we learn to meditate on God’s Word, our minds are improved. They are God-conditioned. They are Jesus-conditioned. They are transformed by the renewing of our thoughts. And we become more obedient people. And that leads to success in life. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. This means succeeding in life’s most important endeavors, in life’s proper pursuits, in those things that God Himself calls you to do. And God will bless us even during the change-chapters of life. If you are facing a transition in your life, remember: The future belongs to God, you must trust Him fully and obey Him completely, and success depends on meditating on the wonders of God’s Word. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

ADRIAN ROGERS
ON MEDITATION

The Principle of Meditation - Now here's the final principle and that's the principle of meditation—maintain a constant communion with the Lord. Look now in verse 15 if you will, "I will meditate in Thy precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways. I will delight myself in Thy statutes: I will not forget Thy word." Meditation is a powerful, powerful force to keep your mind pure. There are three elements in meditation—time, quietness and concentration. If you will spend some time concentrating on the Word of God and thinking about it, it will do something wonderful for your thought life. The word "meditate" has two thoughts. One, as I've told you before, it has the thought of a cow chewing the cud. I'm not a farm boy. Don't know here a lot about farming. Dr. Vincent's here. Dr. Vinson, Barbara, they've got the cows. I think what I'm saying is correct, doctor. If I'm wrong, you stand up to correct me. No, don't. See me later. When a cow would go out there in the pasture and get that clover and that alfalfa and that grass. And he digests it and he has, I think, four stomachs, and he just somehow places it there. And then he'll go out to meditate. That is, he'll go out and lie down in the pasture somewhere and his brain sends a message to his stomach and says, "Alfalfa, please." Up comes the alfalfa and he or she will chew it, swallow it down. And maybe, clover, please. And chew that for a while and get the juice out of it. Send it back down again. The Word of God is like that. You know, you get it in, you ingest it. Then you digest it. You chew on it over and over and over and over again. I find myself going to bed thinking the Word of God, waking up the first thought in the morning thinking the Word of God. It's also like a tune. You can't get out of your mind. Have you ever had a little tune you can't get out of your mind? You deserve a break today? A little thing, it just gets in your mind. Whatever it is, it gets there. Well, get the Word of God in your mind so you meditate on it day after day. Let me just give you a few verses in this same Psalm. Psalm 119:15, "Will meditate in Thy precepts, and have respect unto Thy ways." Psalm 119:23, "Princes also did sit and speak against me, but Thy servant did meditate in Thy statutes." Psalm 119:48, "My hands also will I lift up unto Thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in Thy statutes." Psalm 119:97, "O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day." (From his sermon "Guard Your Heart")

A Pattern to Imitate - (Rogers says) I tell you in my own heart now and I thank God for it, but over and over and over and over again in my life the Word of God is going—over and over again. Just meditating on the Word of God. And it seems like I hardly go anywhere, or even sit in a conversation. I may be talking to you and thinking about the Word of God, as it's just turning over and over. (Ed: Little wonder that Adrian Rogers was so mightily used by God! He ate, drank, lived and breathed "Bible!" May God increase his tribe.Amen).

What does it mean to meditate on the Word of God? Not meditate like transcendental meditation and all that—that's a corruption; that's a falsehood. That kind of meditation looks inward. Bible meditation looks upward. That kind of meditation is not under control. Bible meditation is controlled by the Word of God: "In his law doth he meditate day and night" (Psalm 1:2). Transcendental meditation will get you into all kinds of trouble—it is kind of like going to bed at night and leaving all the doors and windows open to see what might come in. No—you meditate on the Word of God. The idea is this: that the Bible ought to be like a tune that you can't get out of your mind. Ever have a tune like that? Just keep humming it all day long? That's the Word of God. It is there. It is in your mind. It is in your heart. And, incidentally, that's one of the reasons for learning to sing the Scripture—so that the music and the words get in there and they stay there, and so you meditate day and night in the Word of God. Have any of you ever driven a car with a stick shift? Some of you kids don't, but when you get your first car, you have to think: This is first, second, and so forth, and you go through those gears. But, if you've driven it long enough, then you get to where you never even think about it. You push in the clutch and so forth. That's second nature, isn't it? Because, it is so much a part of you that you just do those things by second nature. When you are learning how to drive, you think about everything, but after awhile, you just turn the turn signal and this thing and that thing—it's all second nature. Friend, you get the Word of God in you that way and you begin to live a second- nature life. What I mean by that is that God's Word is just in your life, and you do those things almost automatically, without even thinking about them, because the Word of God has so permeated your life that you live on that principle.

Meditation and Asking Questions - And then meditate on it. Meditate on it! Think about it. And I don't mean oriental meditation. I don't mean mystical meditation. The difference between oriental mystical Buddhism and all that kind of meditation is that those people assume that the answer is within them. But the answer is not. You focus on the Word of God and you meditate on the Word of God and let the Word of God permeate you. Just think about it, meditate on it.
Now, I've given you many times these questions to ask as you meditate on the Word of God. And if you're a teacher or a preacher or anybody else and you're trying to get up a sermon or you just simply, or a lesson or you want a blessing out of the Word of God, you can ask these questions with a clean heart and the Bible will burst aflame. Here they are. Jot them down. Joyce says, when you give lists, you always give them too fast. So we will slow down.
Number one, is there a command to obey? Number two, is there a promise to claim? Number three, is there a sin to avoid? Four, is there a lesson to learn? Five, is there a new truth to carry with me? Now, just simply take those questions. There may be others.
I used to have those questions recorded in the flyleaf of a Bible. And I would refer to them often. It's amazing. Let me give them to you again in case you did not get them all. Is there a command to obey, a promise to claim, a sin to avoid, a lesson the learn, a new truth to carry with me?
So, prepare your heart, get into the Word of God. Meditate on the Word of God and then record what God has given you. This is where the Prayer Journal comes in. Write it down. It doesn't have to be flowery. You're not writing it for publication. You're not writing it to impress other people. Make it intensely personal, but once you do this, you'll find yourself sharing it with other people. I mean, you will, when you do this and you leave it, you will be wanting to share the nuggets that God has given you. And that will make you a blessing to be around. You'll have a wealth of material for lessons and devotions, though that's not even your purpose in doing it.
At the same time, take that notepad and write down the things that you need to do. Action points. This is the one that may be just for the day—obligations and goals and decisions that come out of that time.
Now you're ready to pray. Pray it in and when you pray pour out your soul. Be natural. Don't try to use flowery language when you pray. Jesus said don't use vain repetition. You're not hurt for your much speaking. Be honest with God. Tell Him how you feel, He already knows. Tell Him. Be honest.

The word meditation has the idea of like a tune. It's like the Word of God, as you think it over and over again.

Meditation -Now, here's the last of these seven things, and this is the sum total of all of them. Meditation—meditation. Look again in verse 15: "I will meditate in thy precepts." Verse 16: "I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word." You maintain a constant communion with the Lord. Now, I said all of these things are found in verses 9-16, but just take a little journey with me.
Look in verse 15: "I will meditate. Look, if you will, now in verse 23: "Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes." Look, if you will, in verse 48: "My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes." Look, if you will, in verse 79: "Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known, thy testimonies." Excuse me. "Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight." That's 77. I'll get to 97. Just hang with me. All right. But that was a good one, wasn't it? "O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day."
Look, if you will, at 99: "I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation."
Look in Psalm 119, look in verse 148 of this same psalm: "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word."
Meditate. Meditate. Meditate. Why is this? Because there'll be a vacuum. They asked a little boy in school, "Can you spell vacuum?" He said, "Well, I can't spell it, but I've got it in my head." There'll be a vacuum. And if you don't keep your mind full of something, the devil is going to fill that vacuum. And so, you just, you just meditate. You load up on the Word of God.
Do you know what the word meditate literally means? It has the idea of chewing the cud. Now, I'm not a farm boy. I wasn't raised on a farm, but I've done a little reading. I saw three cows one day. A cow will go out in the field and load up on alfalfa and clover, and grass. And the cow has four stomachs, and he just stores that stuff down there somewhere, she does. And, when, Bossy gets ready, goes and lies down under a shade tree and, Bossy will say, "Alfalfa, please," and up comes alfalfa. Bossy will chew that alfalfa and swallow it down, and say, 'Clover, please," and up comes clover. And she just chews the cud, just a wad of grass, getting all the sweet juice out of that grass, chews it over and over again.
Meditation is also kind of like a, like a song. Have you ever had a song that you just can't get out of your mind? And all day long... The Word of God ought to be like that.
I've used this illustration before. You become... When the Word of God is like that in your heart and in your mind, you're meditating, you become a second-nature Christian. I believe three or four weeks ago, I used this illustration.
I bought a little Volkswagen automobile one time back in the 60s. And you, you shift gears in that automobile. I loved it. It was a fun little car to drive. And, you know, going around the corners, you shift down when you slow down, and so forth. When you get that car, all you're thinking about is shifting those gears. You know, dah, dah, dah, dah. You're just thinking about it. But after you've had it about a year, you never think about it. You're just shifting those gears up and down, up, never even think about it. That's second nature, just second nature.
I'm telling you, folks, when you get the Word of God in your heart and in your mind, you load up on Jesus, you'll become a second-nature Christian. What I mean—you just live that way, you just live that way. You are meditating on the Word of God.

C H SPURGEON
ON MEDITATION

Ps 5:1. Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. -- Sometimes we pray right off, as David did when he cried to the Lord, “Hear me when I call.” At other times, we sit down to meditate, and think over what we want to say to the Lord in prayer, as David did when he said, “ ‘O Lord, consider my meditation.’ What I have considered do thou consider.” A well-considered prayer is very likely to succeed with God.

Ps 18:3. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: -- David first said, “I will love,” now he says, “I will call.” The “I wills” of the Psalms have furnished various writers with an admirable subject; and they may supply you with a profitable line of meditation: “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.” “I will mix praise with my prayer. There is no praying like that; if you have prayer in one hand, have praise in the other. The mixture of these two perfumes will make an exceedingly sweet incense to present unto the Lord. To praise and pray, to pray and praise, is an admirable way of living. Have I not often told you that it resembles our breathing? By prayer we breathe in, and by praise we breathe out.

Psa 23:2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: -- Here is blessed rest, and here is also gracious provision for the needs of the sheep. The pasture is sweet and tender, and there is so much of the green grass that it cannot all be eaten, and the superabundance makes a soft bed for the tired sheep: “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” Repose, O believer, in the abundant provision of God’s grace! A sheep needs sometimes to lie down. It is as necessary for its health that it should have time to digest its food as that it should have proper and sufficient food to eat. May the Lord graciously give to each of you the sweet rest of meditation and contemplation, — that blessed rest, to which faith attains when it grows into firm confidence and full assurance, so that you may be able to say with David, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.”

Ps 63:6. When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. -- When one is living near to God, he is not afraid of sleeplessness. He would be glad of the rest that sleep brings, but if he cannot sleep, he finds a sweeter rest in God. I remarked, one day, to one who lives very near to God, that it was a weary and sad thing to lie sleepless, and he said to me something that stuck by me. “I do not think so,” said he, “for, when I wake in the night, my Heavenly Father talks so sweetly to me that I do not want to go to sleep, and when he does not want to speak to me, I speak to him in prayer, and so the hours glide away most happily.”

Ps 77:12. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. -- Those who talk ought to meditate; otherwise they grind wind. Those who meditate will talk; otherwise the miller grinds only for himself.

Ps 77:11-12. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, — “I will not have any more of my works; I will meditate on thy work. I will get to thee, my God, and think of what thou hast done; especially of thy works of grace, how brightly they shine! I will meditate also of all thy work,”

Ps 81:7. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. -- A very humbling sentence this! God has often proved us, and he has often disproved us. When he has tried us, we have not endured the test as we ought to have done. We have murmured and complained, and the waters, which ought to have been waters of joy and of happy patience, have been waters of strife. “Selah “That is, “Pause,” screw up the harp-strings, lift up the heart. Such a Psalm as this is to be read by installments, with little halts on the road, for us to meditate and think upon the truth brought before us. We may well pause here when we hear the Lord reminding us of our faults and of his great mercy to us: “I delivered thee; I answered thee; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.”

Ps 119:15. I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. -- Blessed meditation! The lack of meditation is one of the faults of the days in which we live, we are so very busy that we have not time to study God’s Word; but the psalmist said, “I will meditate in thy precepts:” that is the secret strength; “and have respect unto thy ways:” that is the public result.

If we meditated more,we should live better.God help us so to do!

Ps 119:147-148. I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word. Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word. - It was not now and then that David was in a devotional frame of mind. He continued so. He began early, but he continued late. The prayer of the down was followed by the watch of the midnight.

Ps 119:148 - “My eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in Your Word. As he [David] was up before the sun, so he was praying before they set the guards for the night watch. And when they were changing guards and he heard the cry of the hour from the watchman, he was still crying to God! And at the same time he was meditating—‘that I might meditate in Your Word.’ Ah, that is the way to cry! Meditation is very much neglected nowadays. We read, perhaps, too much. We meditate, for certain, too little. And meditation is to reading like digestion after eating. The cows in the pasture eat the grass and then they lie down and chew the cud and get all the good they can out of what they have eaten. Reading snips off the grass, but meditation chews the cud! Therefore, ‘read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.’”—1896, Sermon #2464

Ps 119:148. Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word. -- Before the watchman can cry the hour of night, mine eyes are upon the Word of God, and I am studying that. Oh! it is well when we prove our love to the Word of God by our meditation upon it, our constant, searching into it.

Lam 3:27-28. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. -- When it makes a man get alone, to contemplate and meditate, affliction is already doing him good.

Lk 23:25. And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will. -- Sad scene. May our hearts be broken, and made tender, end sanctified by meditation upon it.

Jn 17:23. And that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me -- This is a great deep, the words are very simple and clear, but their meaning is unfathomable. Is it really true that the Father has loved his chosen ones as he has loved his only-begotten Son? It is such a wondrous thing that one might be willing to lie awake at night to meditate upon the amazing truth here revealed in our Savior’s words: “Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”

Jn 20:20. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. -- These were the marks to help their recognition of him. These were the memorials to excite their gratitude. These, too, were the tokens of his condescension; for a man does not show his wounds to any but to those whom he loves; “He showed unto them his hands and his side.” You cannot see that sight, brethren, but you can meditate upon it. Think how he gave those blessed hands to the nails, and that precious side to the soldier’s spear; and, as you think of them, let your love flow forth unto him who suffered thus for you.

Gal 1:17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but went into Arabia, —What he did there, we do not know; but probably he had a time of quiet meditation and prayer, all alone:

Heb 3:1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus: — Oh, that He had more consideration at our hands! Consider Him; you cannot know all His excellence, all His value to you, except He is the subject of your constant meditation. Consider Him; think of His nature, His offices, His work, His promises, His relation to you: “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;”

Heb 12:1-3. Look to him, look at him, study him, know all you can about him-, meditate upon him,

“‘My meditation of Him shall be sweet.’ ‘Of Him’—that is, of the Well-Beloved of the Father, of the Well-Beloved of the Church, of the Well-Beloved of my own soul—of Him who loved me, in whose blood I have washed my robes and made them white. It is meditation ‘of Him’ that is sweet—not merely of doctrine about Him, but of Him, of Himself—‘my meditation of Him.’ Not merely of His offices, and His work, and all that concerns Him, but of His own dear Self! There lies the sweetness and the closer we come to His blessed Person, the more truly have we approached the very center of bliss!” From Sermon #2403

“The old fable speaks of the Augean stable, foul enough to have poisoned a nation, which Hercules cleansed, but our sins were fouler than that! Dunghills are sweet compared with these abominations! What a degrading task it seems for Christ to undertake—the purging of our sins! The sweepers of the streets, the dishwashers of the kitchen, the cleansers of the sewers have honorable work compared with this of purging sin! Yet the holy Christ, incapable of sin, stooped to purge our sins! I want you to meditate upon that wondrous work and to remember that He did it before He went back to Heaven. Is it not a wonderful thing that Christ purged our sins even before we had committed them? There they stood, before the sight of God, as already existent in all their hideousness—but Christ came, and purged them. This, surely, ought to make us sing the song of songs! Before I sinned, He purged my sins away—amazing and strange as it is, yet it is so! ”—1899, Sermon #2635

‘Prayer, meditation, and affliction,’ says Melanchthon, ‘are the three things that make the minister of God.’ There must be prayer. There must be meditation and there must be affliction. You cannot pronounce the promise correctly in the ears of the afflicted unless you, yourself, have known its preciousness in your own hour of trial. It is God’s will that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, should often work by men according to that ancient word of His, ‘Comfort you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem.’ These comforting men are to be made—they are not born so—and they have to be made by passing through the furnace themselves. They cannot comfort others unless they have had trouble and have been comforted in it.”— 1899, Sermon #2640

“Meditation and prayer are twin sisters and both of them appear to me equally necessary to Christian life. I think meditation must exist where there is prayer, and prayer is sure to exist where there is meditation.”—1900, Sermon #2690

“If you were to get quite alone, as our Savior was in the wilderness, with nothing but the wild beasts round about you, you could not shut out the devil even then! Forty days He had for meditation, prayer and fasting, yet there was the devil waiting to assail Him again and again! So I repeat that not even solitude, if the lonely hours were spent in prayer, fasting and watching, could secure us immunity from temptation—it must and will attack us.”—1900, Sermon #2694

Meditation onthe love of Christ

“If I ever try to secure a quiet half-hour’s meditation upon His love to me, somebody is pretty sure to come and knock at the door. But if I can keep the door-knocker still, and get alone with my Lord and only think about His love to me—not trying to elaborate any theories, or to understand any doctrines, but just sitting down with the view of loving Him who gave Himself for me—I tell you, Sirs, that this thought is positively inebriating to the soul!”—Volume 52, Sermon #2986

“It used to be more common than it is now for godly men and women to spend hour after hour in solemn meditation upon the agonies of Christ upon the Cross. I tried, one day when I was alone, to get a vivid realization of that awful tragedy—and I succeeded to the breaking of my own heart—but I cannot describe the scene to you. That is a matter for private meditation rather than for public speech.”—Volume 57, Sermon #3276

“If I were to say, ‘Hands up, everyone who has a Bible,’ everybody’s hands here would go up. I suppose that nobody here is without a Bible. But if I were to ask, ‘How many here, constantly, as a habit and a delight, meditate upon the Scriptures?’—I wonder what answers I would receive? Well, I will not ask you that question, but let everybody ask it for himself and judge himself concerning it in the sight of God.”—Volume 54, Sermon #3090

“All things considered, I know of no meditation that is likely to be more profitable than a frequent consideration of the rest which remains for the people of God.”—Volume 62, Sermon #3499

MEDITATION—to be Practiced. -- Those who would be in health do not sit still in their houses to breathe such air as may come to them, but they walk abroad and seek out rural and elevated spots that they may inhale the invigorating breezes; and thus those godly souls who would be in a vigorous spiritual state, do not merely think upon such holy doctrines as may come into their minds in the ordinary course of thought, but they give time to meditation, they walk abroad in the fields of truth, and endeavour to climb the heights of gospel promises. It is said that Enoch walked with God: here is not an idle but an active communion. The road to bodily health is said to be a footpath, and the way to spiritual health is to exercise one's self in holy contemplation.

Beloved Christian reader, in matters of grace you need a daily supply. You have no store of strength. Day by day must you seek help from above. It is a very sweet assurance that a daily portion is provided for you. In the word, through the ministry, by meditation, in prayer, and waiting upon God you shall receive renewed strength. In Jesus all needful things are laid up for you. Then enjoy your continual allowance. Never go hungry while the daily bread of grace is on the table of mercy.

Genesis 24:63 “Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide.” -- Very admirable was his occupation. If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable society and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them. We should all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone. Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is sweet indeed. Isaac found Rebecca while engaged in private musings; many others have found their best beloved there. (Morning and evening: Aug 15)

2 Peter 1:4 -- If you would know experimentally the preciousness of the promises, and enjoy them in your own heart, meditate much upon them. There are promises which are like grapes in the wine-press; if you will tread them the juice will flow. Thinking over the hallowed words will often be the prelude to their fulfilment. While you are musing upon them, the boon which you are seeking will insensibly come to you. Many a Christian who has thirsted for the promise has found the favour which it ensured gently distilling into his soul even while he has been considering the divine record; and he has rejoiced that ever he was led to lay the promise near his heart. But besides meditating upon the promises, seek in thy soul to receive them as being the very words of God. Speak to thy soul thus, “If I were dealing with a man’s promise, I should carefully consider the ability and the character of the man who had covenanted with me. So with the promise of God; my eye must not be so much fixed upon the greatness of the mercy—that may stagger me; as upon the greatness of the promiser—that will cheer me. My soul, it is God, even thy God, God that cannot lie, who speaks to thee. This word of his which thou art now considering is as true as his own existence. He is a God unchangeable. He has not altered the thing which has gone out of his mouth, nor called back one single consolatory sentence. Nor doth he lack any power; it is the God that made the heavens and the earth who has spoken thus. Nor can he fail in wisdom as to the time when he will bestow the favours, for he knoweth when it is best to give and when better to withhold. Therefore, seeing that it is the word of a God so true, so immutable, so powerful, so wise, I will and must believe the promise.” If we thus meditate upon the promises, and consider the Promiser, we shall experience their sweetness, and obtain their fulfilment.

How marvelous has been our experience of God’s gentleness! How gentle have been his corrections! How gentle his forbearance! How gentle his teachings! How gentle his drawings! Meditate upon this theme, O believer. Let gratitude be awakened; let humility be deepened; let love be quickened ere thou fallest asleep to-night.

Ruth 2:17 - Let me learn from Ruth, the gleaner. As she went out to gather the ears of corn, so must I go forth into the fields of prayer, meditation, the ordinances, and hearing the word to gather spiritual food. The gleaner gathers her portion ear by ear; her gains are little by little: so must I be content to search for single truths, if there be no greater plenty of them. Every ear helps to make a bundle, and every gospel lesson assists in making us wise unto salvation. (Morning and Evening - Aug 2)

Morning, October 12 “I will meditate in thy precepts.” — Psalm 119:15 -- There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on his Word spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser’s feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches, or else the juice will not flow; and they must well tread the grapes, or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted. So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom. Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it. Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning, “I will meditate in thy precepts.”

Phil 3:8 - Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person’s acquaintance with him. No, I must know him myself; I must know him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge—I must know him, not as the visionary dreams of him, but as the Word reveals him. I must know his natures, divine and human. I must know his offices—his attributes—his works—his shame—his glory. I must meditate upon him until I “comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” (Morning and evening: Daily readings- Oct 14)

“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Or this, “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.” Our Master’s field is very rich; behold the handfuls. See, there they lie before thee, poor timid believer! Gather them up, make them thine own, for Jesus bids thee take them. Be not afraid, only believe! Grasp these sweet promises, thresh them out by meditation and feed on them with joy.

From Morning and Evening (Feb 7) - Christian, meditate much on heaven, it will help thee to press on, and to forget the toil of the way. This vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country: this world of woe is but the stepping-stone to a world of bliss.

“Prepare us, Lord, by grace divine,
For thy bright courts on high;
Then bid our spirits rise, and join
The chorus of the sky.”

Commenting on Lk 24:47 - This unrivalled tutor (Jesus) used as his class-book the best of books. Although able to reveal fresh truth, he preferred to expound the old. He knew by his omniscience what was the most instructive way of teaching, and by turning at once to Moses and the prophets, he showed us that the surest road to wisdom is not speculation, reasoning, or reading human books, but meditation upon the Word of God. The readiest way to be spiritually rich in heavenly knowledge is to dig in this mine of diamonds, to gather pearls from this heavenly sea. When Jesus himself sought to enrich others, he wrought in the quarry of Holy Scripture. (From Evening Reading, January 18)

"Do we not miss very much of the sweetness and efficacy of prayer by lack of careful meditation before it and of hopeful expectation after it? We too often rush into the presence of God without forethought or humility. We should be careful to keep the stream of meditation always running, for this is the water to drive the mill of prayer"…

"Words are mockery if the heart does not meditate; but both together are useless unless accepted; and even if accepted by man, it is all vanity if not acceptable in the sight of God" …

"We are usually in too much of a hurry: a little more holy meditation would make our words more suitable and our emotions more fervent" … commenting on meditating on God's word "Sweet work to enter into Jehovah’s work of grace, and there to lie down and ruminate, every thought being absorbed in the one precious object…

It is well that the overflow of the mouth should indicate the good matter which fills the heart. Meditation makes rich talking; it is to be lamented that so much of the conversation of believers is utterly barren, because they take no time for contemplation. Meditative people should be talkers, otherwise they are mental misers, mill which grind corn only for the miller. The subject of our meditation should be choice, and then our talk will be edifying; if we meditate on folly and pretend to speak wisdom, our double mindedness will soon be known to everyone. Holy talk following upon meditation has a consoling power in it for ourselves as well as for those who listen"…

"Hurried reading is of little benefit; to sit down awhile and meditate is very profitable" …

"Meditation is the soul of religion. We ought, therefore, both for our own food and for the Lord’s honor to be much occupied with meditation, and that meditation should chiefly dwell upon the Lord himself: it should be meditation of him. For want of it much communion is lost and much happiness is missed" …

"No spiritual exercise is more profitable to the soul than that of devout meditation; why are many of us so exceeding slack in it?" …

"It is instructive to find meditation so constantly connected with fervent prayer: it is the fuel which sustains the flame. How rare an article is it in these days"…

"Our Master’s field is full and rich. The precious promises lie in front of you. Gather them. Make them your own. Grasp these sweet promises. Thresh them by meditation. Feed on them with joy" …

"Look for themes on which to meditate profitably. Get an anchor-hold on some great and clearly ascertained truth, a truth in which you can have no possible doubt. Then you may begin to be comforted"… "These busy days leave little time for meditation, yet there is no exercise more nourishing to faith, love, and grace. A transient thought of God may greatly bless, just as a touch of the Savior’s garment healed a woman (Mt 9:21–22). When we meditate, we lean on His embrace and enjoy the full fellowship of His love. David said, “I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches” (Ps 63:6).

Prayer, meditation, devotion, communion, are like a windlass to wind us up aloft; it is not lost time which we spend in such sacred exercises, for we are thus accumulating force, so that when we come down to our actual labour for God, we shall descend with an energy unknown to those to whom communion is unknown.

Oh for more meditation! It would mean more grace and more joy. May you and I find pleasure in our sleepless hours and enter into close fellowship with Him through heavenly meditation. Private meditation and devotion should be a dialogue between your soul and God. The Lord speaks to us through Scripture, and by prayer we speak to Him. When prayer is not urgent, read your Bible and hear His voice; then you will usually find it in your heart to pray. Speak to Him as you would speak to a friend. When you have expressed all your thoughts, let the Lord speak again, and realize His presence."…

"Ah, there is nothing that can so console your spirits and relieve all your distresses and troubles as the feeling that now you can meditate on the person of Jesus Christ" …

"Meditation and contemplation are often like windows of agate and gates of carbuncle through which we behold the Redeemer. Meditation puts the telescope to the eye and enables us to see Jesus better than we could have seen Him if we had lived in the days of His flesh. Would that we were more taken up with the person, the work, and the beauty of our incarnate Lord" …

"To have sweet sleep we must have sweet lives, sweet tempers, sweet meditations, and sweet love"…

"Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is sweet indeed." …

"Meditate upon what you read: stop not at the surface; dive into the depths. Be not as the swallow which toucheth the brook with her wing, but as the fish which penetrates the lowest wave. Abide with your Lord: let him not be to you as a wayfaring man, that tarrieth for a night, but constrain him, saying, “Abide with us, for the day is far spent.” Hold him, and do not let him go." …

"As friend met friend upon the city wall, so meet thou thy God in the way of holy prayer and meditation" …

"Christian, meditate much on heaven, it will help thee to press on, and to forget the toil of the way. This vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country: this world of woe is but the stepping-stone to a world of bliss" …

"Grasp these sweet promises, thresh them out by meditation and feed on them with joy"

"I Will Meditate on Thy Precepts" (from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening) - "There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on his Word spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser’s feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches, or else the juice will not flow; and they must well tread the grapes, or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted.

So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth,if we would get the wine of consolation there from.

Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it. Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning, “I will meditate in thy precepts.”

"Meditate is a very figurative word. It pictures a cow chewing her cud. I’m told that the cow has several compartments in her tummy. She can go out in the morning, graze on the grass when the dew is on it in the cool of the day. Then when it gets hot in the middle of the day, she lies down under a tree and begins to chew the cud. She moves the grass she had in the morning back up and now she masticates it, she goes over it again. That is what we do when we meditate. We go over what we have read. Way back in 1688 Bartholomew Ashwood said, “Meditation chews the cud.” My, how that is needed today in the lives of believers. Remember that James spoke of the man who beholds his natural face in a mirror, then “… immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.” (Jas 1:24-note).

We are to meditate on the Word of God (which is God’s mirror that shows us what we really are). We are to allow the Word to shape our lives. My friend, God has no plan or program by which you are to grow and develop as a believer apart from His Word. You can become as busy as a termite in your church (and possibly with the same effect as a termite), but you won’t grow by means of activity. You will grow by meditating upon the Word of God—that is, by going over it again and again in your thinking until it becomes a part of your life. This is the practice of the happy (blessed) man (Psalm 1:1,2- see notes Psalm 1:1; 1:2)." (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

WARREN WIERSBE
ON MEDITATION

Commenting on "wait" in (Isa 40:31) he writes "If we trust ourselves, we will faint and fall; but if we wait on the Lord by faith, we will receive strength for the journey. The word “wait” does not suggest that we sit around and do nothing. It means “to hope,” to look to God for all that we need (Isa. 26:3; 30:15). This involves meditating on His character and His promises, praying, and seeking to glorify Him."

"As we meditate on the Word of God and apply it to our lives, the Spirit of God uses the Word to cleanse us and make us more like Christ (2 Cor 3:18)." (Be Holy)

"Abraham was a man of faith who believed God’s word and knew how to apply it to specific situations and decisions. He sought to obey God’s word because true faith always results in obedience. The more you meditate on God’s Word, the more truth you will see in it and the more direction you will get from it. This applies to decisions about marriage, vocation, ministry, or any other area in life. Unless we trust God’s Word and obey it, He will not direct us (Pr 3:5–6)." (Be obedient).

"The Word of God is like a deep mine, filled with precious treasures; but the believer must put forth effort to discover its riches. It takes careful reading and study, prayer, meditation, and obedience to mine the treasures of the Word of God; and the Holy Spirit of God is willing to assist us. Why are we so negligent when this great wealth lies so near at hand?" (Be Patient)

"When we cultivate the inner person through prayer, meditation on the Word, and submission to the Lord, then we can experience the joys of a disciplined and diligent life." (from Be Skillful)

"Keep in mind that, apart from kings, prophets, and priests, the average Jewish adult didn’t own copies of their sacred books and had to depend on memory to be able to meditate on God’s truth and discuss it (Dt 6:1–9)." (Be Skillful)

"Victorious Christians are people who know the promises of God, because they spend time meditating on God’s Word (Josh 1:8); they believe the promises of God, because the Word of God generates faith in their hearts (Ro 10:17); and they reckon on these promises and obey what God tells them to do. To “reckon” means to count as true in your life what God says about you in His Word." (Be Strong)

"As we read the Bible and meditate on it, we discover God’s will and God’s strategy for his people in this world." (Be What You Are)

"How does the Spirit teach the believer? He compares “spiritual things with spiritual.” He reminds us of what He has taught us (John 14:26), relates that truth to something new, and then leads us into new truth and new applications of old truth. What a joy it is to sit before the pages of the Bible and let the Spirit reveal God’s truth. The trouble is, many Christians are too busy for this kind of quiet meditation. What enrichment they are missing!" ("Be Series" 1 Cor)

"What digestion is to the body, meditation is to the soul. It is not enough merely to hear the Word or read the Word. We must inwardly “digest it” and make it part of our inner persons (see 1 Thes. 2:13)." ("Be Series" 3 John)

"Right thinking is the result of daily meditation on the Word of God." ("Be Series" Philippians)

"Those who delight in God’s Word, meditate on it, and seek to obey it will experience God’s direction and blessing in their lives (Ps 1:1–3). The Word reveals God’s mind, so we should learn it; God’s heart, so we should love it; God’s will, so we should live it. Our whole being—mind, will, and heart—should be controlled by the Word of God." ("Be Series" 1 Peter)

"Unless a Christian spends time daily in meditating on the Word of God, his inner man will lack power." (Commenting on Mt 4:4 from Be Series)

"Luther said that prayer, meditation, and suffering make a preacher, and he was right. The stars shine the brightest when the night is the darkest, and God is able to give us songs in the night." ("The Elements of Preaching")

"We must meditate on God’s Word. Meditation is to the inner man what digestion is to the outer man. If you did not digest your food, you would sicken and die." ("The Strategy of Satan)

"Meditation is to the soul what “digestion” is to the body. It means understanding the Word, “chewing on it,” and applying it to our lives, making it a part of the inner person. See Jer. 15:16, Ezek. 3:3, and Rev. 10:9." (Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament)

"The next step is to reach for your Bible and present your mind to God for spiritual renewal. It is the Word of God that renews the mind and transforms it. If you do not have a system for reading the Bible, get one. Personally, I like to read straight through the Bible regularly, but I do not give myself a time limit. I start in Genesis 1, Psalm 1, and Matthew 1, and I keep reading. There are some days when I read and meditate on only a few verses; on other days, I may read all three chapters. I am not in a hurry; I am not trying to set any records. My purpose is to meditate on the Word of God so that the Spirit of God will be able to transform my mind and make it more spiritual." ("The Strategy of Satan)

"Meditation on the Word of God will always bring peace (Ps. 119:165 "Those who love Thy law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble.")." (Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament)

(Commenting on Ps 19:14) "The meditation of the heart controls the words of the mouth (Mk 7:14–23). The word “meditation” here has the image of a musician plucking the strings of a harp. Who controls the music of your heart, God or Satan? Meditation is to the heart what digestion is to the body; it is the taking in of the Word of God and making it a part of the inner being. As the heart and mind think on the Word all day long, the Spirit guides the life. This is what it means to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) and to have the spiritual mind (Ro 8:1-8)." (Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament)

"When you truly delight in the Word, you will have a desire to meditate on it and make it a part of your life. In Psalm 119, the writer connects “delight” and “meditation” (Ps 119:15–16, 23–24, 47–48, 77–78). Cultivate an appetite for the Word of God." ("With the Word Bible Commentary")

"You “feed” on Jesus Christ when you meditate on His Word and make its truths a part of your inner person." ("With the Word Bible Commentary")

A man was asked one time "When you can’t sleep, do you count sheep?" He said "No. I talk to the Shepherd." That’s what God wants His people to do, talk to the Shepherd—meditate.

Psalm 1:1-2 says Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Like the cow chewing its cud, just going over it and over it and over it, so too should we meditate on the Word, going over it and over it and over it." (from How to Study the Bible )

"As we focus on the Word of God, the power it will have in our lives is incredible. As we meditate on it, it empowers us. It’s like the old computer saying, “G.I.G.O., garbage in—garbage out.” Whatever we pump into our computers is just what’s going to come regurgitating out in our lives. As we feed on the Word of God, it’s going to come right back out in our lives. It’s our source of energy." (from How to Study the Bible )

"It is not enough just to study the Bible. We must meditate upon it. In a very real sense we are giving our brain a bath; we are washing it in the purifying solution of God’s Word." (MacArthur, J. J. The MacArthur Study Bible. Nashville: Word Pub)

"Delighting in the Lord and meditating on His Word are a great antidote to anxiety (Ps 1:2)." (MacArthur, J. J. The MacArthur Study Bible. Nashville: Word Pub)

HENRY BLACKABY
ON MEDITATON

Scripture is wonderful, if you meditate on it. Our problem is we read without meditation. Your life will never be anchored like a tree without meditation (cp Ps 1:2-3). Some say, "I’ve read through the Bible at least once every year." Well, that’s wonderful, but your life will not be anchored by a river of living water until you stop and meditate on God’s Word. It’s the one who meditates on God’s Word day and night who becomes like a tree planted by the rivers of water. So, you really need to know what meditating is. Now, in our generation, we talk about transcendental meditation. On television we can see the stereotypical meditator, eyes closed, mumbling the same phrase over and over. That’s not biblical meditation at all. Let me tell you my own definition of meditation. Meditation is that moment when God confronts you with the truth about Himself. It is that moment when you go into the presence of God and let God discuss it with you until you know exactly how to respond to Him, however long it takes."

Changed through Meditation (Psalm 1:2) Meditation means “to think deeply and continuously about something.” For a Christian, this means remaining in the presence of God and pondering each truth He reveals about Himself until it becomes real and personal in your life. This takes time. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus accused certain would-be followers of calling Him “Lord” and yet never doing what He told them (Luke 6:46). They had the correct truth in their heads, but it had never translated into obedience. When you meditate on Scriptures, the truth moves from your head to your heart and results in obedience. As the Psalmist said: “Your word have I hidden in my heart, / That I might not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11).When you know God's Word in your mind but not in your heart, it means that you have learned the principles and concepts and doctrines of God, but you have not come to know Jesus personally. You can reject a doctrine, or ignore a concept, or challenge a principle, but it is much more difficult to ignore a Person. You can have Scripture in your mind and still sin against God. There are those who can recite long passages of Scripture and yet live ungodly lives. However, you cannot have Scripture fill your heart and continue to sin against God. When God's truth is allowed to touch the deepest corner of your soul, the Holy Spirit will transform you into the image of Jesus Christ. Don't just read your Bible, meditate on God's Word and ask Him to change your heart.

How do I meditate on God's Word? Christians in the Western world can be uncomfortable with meditation, associating the practice with Eastern mysticism. But meditation is a biblical practice that can lead to life-changing encounters with God. Through meditation we can go deeper with God and gain profound insights from him. Meditation can occupy a brief period or an extended time span. At times, circumstances may compel us to quickly focus on God's Word. Psalm 46:1 says that God is a “helper who is always found in times of trouble.” In moments of need, we can experience the reality of God's presence immediately. Likewise, through the psalmist, God instructs us to be still “and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). In the calm, quiet moments of our lives, or in the middle of a hectic day, we can become keenly aware that God is with us. We can pause at any hour to contemplate what God has promised us through his Word. It is also wise to devote extended periods of time to hearing from God. Jesus often made time in his schedule for prolonged prayer sessions with his Father. He would go to a mountain to pray throughout the night (Mark 6:46; Luke 6:12). He would rise early to enable solitary, uninterrupted communion with his Father (Mark 1:35). These encounters were Jesus' lifeline as he constantly sought to align himself with his Father's will.
To clearly hear from God on weighty issues, it is not prudent to launch a hurried prayer on the way to the boardroom or staff meeting. Some matters are so vital, they demand that we do whatever is necessary to hear from God. This may require sacrifice on our part, as Jesus demonstrated, but obtaining God's divine wisdom is well worth going without sleep or food.
Meditation sometimes involves sustained concentration, focusing on God for several days, weeks, or even months. Twice, Moses spent forty days and nights on Mount Sinai receiving God's message (Deut. 9:9, 25). Jesus, too, spent forty days and nights in the wilderness as he prepared to commence his public ministry (Matt. 4:1-2; Luke 4:1-2). The apostle Paul spent three years in Arabia allowing God to prepare his heart and mind for God's great work through his life (Gal. 1:15-18).
Even if you cannot retreat to be alone, you can maintain an elevated level of spiritual concentration and watchfulness. A time of extended focus on God is crucial when you are facing a major decision or undergoing difficult circumstances. At such times, you need God to walk particularly closely with you. Throughout the days and weeks, God may use a variety of means to communicate his heart. He will build upon what he said earlier until, over time, you gain a full understanding of what he is teaching you.
Here are several truths to consider regarding meditation:
1. To meditate is to remain in God's presence until you clearly hear from him. Christians rush in and out of God's presence, yet they expect to gain understanding of profound, divine realities. Meditation is a discipline wherein you focus long enough for God to lead you into a deep encounter with him (2 Cor. 3:18), allowing the time for God to teach you scriptural truths at a deeper level than usual. Eastern mysticism uses meditation to empty the mind; biblical meditation is focused concentration on what God says about a specific subject. It helps you comprehend the magnitude of Christ's suffering on the cross or more fully grasp the multifaceted reality of God's character. Meditation leads to a deeper understanding of God's truth—the truth that sets you free (John 8:32).
2. Some religions encourage you to repeat the same phrases over and over while you meditate. Biblical meditation is not a practice of speaking but of hearing from God. The Spirit of truth is prepared to guide you, but you must remain silent before him and listen to him (John 16:13).
3. Meditation is God-centered, not self-centered. The primary focus of meditation is to know God more fully and intimately (Jer. 9:23-24). Christ can present himself so simply that a child can enjoy a sweet relationship with him. He can also offer glimpses of his character that are so phenomenal, they baffle the sharpest human mind. When you meditate, you take time to concentrate on God so he reveals new insights into his nature. Regardless of how much time you spend in this pursuit, there will always be more to learn because God is infinite.
4. The secondary purpose of meditation is to better understand ourselves and our circumstances. Pondering our spiritual condition can prevent sin from gaining a foothold in our heart. The automatic by-product of an encounter with God is seeing ourselves as we are (Job 42:1-6; Isa. 6:5). The downfall of many leaders occurs because they don't take time to understand their own weaknesses and God's corresponding strength.
5. Meditation can be enhanced through fasting. Fasting takes the emphasis off your physical appetites so you can satisfy your spiritual need. Every distraction that can be removed while you meditate will channel your concentration and receptivity to hear more clearly from God.
Meditation can enable you to experience profound insights into God's Word. It can forever change your life. Set aside time for meditation so you can begin to go deeper with God.

Questions for Reflection
1. How often do you meditate on the Lord and his Word?
2. What are some issues that call for extra wisdom wherein you could benefit from meditation?
3. What truths or Scriptures do you feel would greatly enrich you if you were to meditate on them?
4. What steps can you take to facilitate meditation?

Meditating on God’s Word Brings Blessings - When God talks about the importance of meditating on His Word, don’t necessarily assume that to do this you have to sit down in a quiet room trying to focus your mind on Scripture. That’s not a bad idea, and most of us do far too little of that. But meditating on the Word can be done wherever you are—just as you can think about a person or an object that brings you great pleasure wherever you are.
To meditate means to chew on the Word, to keep bringing it up and rolling it over in our minds. When you meditate, you are fantasizing over Scripture and what it can do in your life, just as a boy standing out in his backyard with a baseball bat and a ball fantasizes about winning the World Series with a home run and feels the exhilaration of being a hero. Meditation is musing on Scripture until its truth and application to our lives has been clarified by the Holy Spirit. Anyone who knows how to worry knows how to meditate.
Perhaps the best illustration of meditation is the cow you see in the countryside, slowly chewing and even drooling as she chews her cud. Without getting too graphic in detail, a cow keeps regurgitating a wad of grass and chewing it because a cow has six stomachs to work with, not one. The cow chews that cud until it has finally become palatable to her system, at which point the cud has been thoroughly processed and is ready to go down inside the cow and produce something good, which is the milk we drink.
If we as believers mentally and spiritually processed the Bible as thoroughly as a cow does her cud, there would be a lot of good things coming from our lives. And we can’t excuse ourselves by saying we’re not very good at this meditation thing. We do it all the time. The problem is that most of us spend most of our time meditating on the wrong things.
For instance, did you know that persistent worry is a negative form of meditation? When you are worried about something, you can’t get it out of your mind no matter what you are doing. A lot of people spend a lot of time “meditating” on their financial situation. Some people meditate on their favorite television program or sports team. How do I know that? Because what we meditate on, what we think about the most and what consumes our affections, comes out in what we talk about the most.
So let’s not use the “I don’t know how to meditate” excuse as a reason for not focusing our minds on God and His Word. I will grant you that letting God’s Word get such a grip on you that you can’t stop thinking about it takes a little work at first, especially if this is a new concept to you. The first time we hear or read the Word, it may not connect. But instead of just putting it out of our minds and going on, we need to work that thing like a cow working her cud. We need to think about how our lives would look if we systematically and seriously applied the Scripture we are dealing with.
Too often, though, we settle for a Bible verse a day to keep the devil away, because somehow we have the idea that the Word is too hard to understand. Or we’re content just to hear someone else talk about it.
Unfortunately, many Christians are spiritual bulimics. A bulimic is a person with a craving for food who does not want to be affected by that food. So a bulimic will eat and then go to the bathroom and throw up so the food doesn’t have time to have any effect. Many Christians go to church on Sunday or Wednesday to enjoy a good meal from God’s Word, but they go out the doors and toss that food out of their spiritual systems—with the result that they begin to waste away from lack of nourishment.
One way to avoid this syndrome is to meditate on the Word—to roll it over and over in your mind and ask, “God, how does Your Word affect what I’m facing right now? What does it say about my response to what I’m facing? How can Your Word change what I’m thinking and feeling right now if my attitude is not right? How does Your Word equip me to deal with the things I am facing?”
Meditation connects God’s Word to life’s realities. The difference between hearing God’s Word and being blessed by it is called meditation.
Why does God want us to meditate on His Word? There are many reasons, including the need to avoid sin (see Psalm 119:11). The subject of this chapter suggests another reason. The Bible is the repository of our spiritual blessings. It is the means by which we bring heaven down to earth, which is a good description of what it means to be blessed.
I love the story of the little boy who had just taken his first ride in an elevator and was trying to explain it. “I went into this little room,” he said excitedly, “and the upstairs came down!” Blessing is when heaven comes down and the glory of God fills your soul. He gives you the capacity to enjoy Him and His goodness, regardless of what is happening around you.

Fixing your heart and mind on God is called meditation. Meditation is a fixation on one subject for an extended period of time. The problem with Eastern religions is not that the people meditate. They have the wrong object of meditation, the wrong god. As they sit and hum by the hour, they are trying to get to the spiritual man. They try to get beyond the physical to the spiritual. They meditate to get inside of themselves, which is doing the right thing with the wrong subject. Eastern religious practitioners meditate, but not on the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. So in your devotion time, if all you do is read a passage of Scripture and rattle off a few prayer items, you do not worship. Worship includes yieldedness to the Holy Spirit and a fixation on God. That means you cannot worship and watch television at the same time. It would be better to delay your devotions for another time, because the goal of worship is total fixation on God.

GEORGE MULLER
ON MEDITATION

George Müller (1805-1898) is famous for establishing orphanages in England and for joyfully depending on God for all his needs. How did he kindle this joy and faith? In 1841 he made a life-changing discovery. The testimony of this from his autobiography has proved to be of tremendous value in my life, and I pray that it will also bear fruit in yours:

While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now… more than forty years have since passed away.

The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental, communion with the Lord. I began therefore, to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning.

The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake or preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so156 that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.

When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

The difference between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer… But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray.

I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

It often now astonished me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man.

As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God: and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts…

I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials and the temptations of the day come upon one![6] Autobiography of George Müller, comp. Fred Bergen (London: J. Nisbet, 1906), 152-4.